Dec 24 Day 23: Netzach, Israel - Zak Schneider

Today we woke up in beautiful Tel Aviv and later headed to the city of Jerusalem.

Upon arrival we attended an advocacy seminar where we heard a lecture (from a man known as Neil Lazarus) on how to defend Israel if we are ever confronted by a Palestinian sympathiser who enjoys pointing fingers at our home country. In this lecture we viewed various anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian news articles and videos, published by the anti-Semitic media, and discussed how misleading and false they are. Lazarus opened the lecture with a video of the many despicable human beings (most of them being Aussies) marching in support of the destruction of the state of Israel in the streets of Sydney, a city which we call home. This really made me think: is Australia really a country which us as Jews should be living in? A country where the population marches in favour of the destruction of our home. Australia is not unique; this happens all over the world. Are we really welcome in Australia? Do we really belong in the diaspora? Clearly not.

After hearing this lecture, we were on our way to see the “apartheid walls” (as portrayed by the anti-Semitic media) surrounding the West Bank. We then passed a checkpoint allowing us entry into an area surrounded by the border walls on both sides (parents: don’t worry we were still in Israel). While standing on the side of the road, rocks thrown by our friendly neighbors flew over our heads and forced us to take shelter. Peaking through a gap in the wall, I saw a young Palestinian boy (aged around 10-12) throwing rocks at us and the Israeli soldiers. This goes to show how indoctrinated the Palestinians are. Their bloodthirsty hatred towards us is passed on from generation to generation.

Following our “pleasant” experience we made our way back to the auditorium and heard another presentation from a man by the name of Arnold Roth, who told us his story. Arnold lost his daughter in a terror attack in Jerusalem. He spent the entirety of his presentation discussing how to combat terrorism, the reasons for terror and the harsh emotional impact that the conflict has on our people.

Overall, today was a really important, eye opening experience for many of us. Experiencing the events today really gave us an idea of what kind of heartless, cowardice enemy (many living in the same city as us) we as Zionist Jews are facing.